1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method for analyzing mushrooms and, more particularly, to a method, which used to rapidly analyze active ingredients of mushrooms.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mushrooms are rich in polysaccharides, which can stimulate activation of macrophages, secretion of TNF and IL-2, and production of antibodies, thereby possessing fine anti-tumor activity. Besides polysaccharides, Taiwanofungus camphoratus, one mushroom, contains more than 200 species of triterpenoids, which can possess effects such as anti-tumor, liver-protective, anti-dotal, anti-high blood lipid and pressure and immuno-modulating activities. As a result, Taiwanofungus camphoratus is believed to be a great choice for health care.
Due to excellent anti-tumor activities of the mushrooms, industries tend to develop several methods for culturing mushrooms or for extracting mushrooms, to improve amounts of active ingredients in mushroom extracts. However, conventional methods for analyzing mushrooms used to analyze the active ingredients in mushroom extracts have defaults discussed below.
In a conventional method for analyzing mushrooms, DNA of a sample of mushrooms is extracted, followed by a PCR reaction or a real-time PCR reaction to analyze DNA or mRNA of mushrooms. However, the conventional method for analyzing mushrooms can only be used to analyze species of mushrooms, but not be used to quantitatively or qualitatively analyze amounts of active ingredients of mushrooms.
In another conventional method for analyzing mushrooms, a sample of mushrooms is analyzed by a reversed phase chromatography using a C18 column, for example. The another conventional method for analyzing mushrooms can be used to quantitatively or qualitatively analyze amounts of active ingredients of mushrooms. However, during the process of the reversed phase chromatography, more time for analyzing is needed. Further, after analyzing one sample of mushrooms, additional time for washing the C18 column and for balancing the C18 column are further needed. That is, another conventional method for analyzing mushrooms with the reversed phase chromatography is not suitable for large-scale screening.
In light of this, it is necessary to improve the conventional method for analyzing mushrooms.